Academic Freedom and the Social Responsibilities of Academics in Tanzania

5. The University as a Site of Knowledge: The Role of Basic Research

5 The University as a Site of Knowledge: The Role of Basic Research Chachage Seithy L. Chachage ‘The scramble to get into college is going to be so terrible in the next few years that students are going to put up with almost anything, even an education .’ Barnaby Keeney, President, Brown University (cited in Charlton 1994: 14) Introduction On 30 April 2003, the then United States Ambassador to Tanzania, Mr Robert V. Royall, was scheduled to inaugurate a USAID-funded modern transportation engineering laboratory on the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) main campus (‘The Hill’). This was at a time when the United States and Britain were pouring down thousands of tons of bombs on Iraq. On 29 April 2003, the University of Dar es Salaam Academic Staff Assembly (UDASA) strongly and unreservedly protested against the presence of the Ambassador on the main campus and called upon its members and the university community to boycott the event. UDASA stated that the American and British bombing campaign was reducing … [Iraq] to rubble, and literally disarming children, as the likes of Ali losing their limbs [had] shown’. It also complained that as a result of the bombing ‘the great libraries and museums of Iraq went up in flames, destroying the record of over ten centuries of Arab, Islamic and human civilisation. The UDASA protest did not go down well with the university administration, even though the Tanzanian government was also opposed to the invasion of Iraq, as Parliament had been informed in the same month. The vice-chancel- 33 Chachage: The University as a Site of Knowledge: The Role of Basic Research lor responded to the UDASA statement through a letter to the chairperson on 9 May 2003. Among other things, the letter questioned whether the statement was not contrary to the right to academic freedom. The vice-chancellor argued: A university is a free market of ideas. One would, therefore, have thought that ‘un-embedded’ intellectuals would have asked, not for a boycott of Ambassador Royall’s visit, but for an invitation to him to a discussion/debate/ panel discussion with others holding views different from those of UDASA. The letter continued: ‘Why was this option not exercised? By condemning the US, unheard as is done in the statement, will an invitation to a US government representative to the UDSM for a debate/discussion stand any chance of success?’ The letter went on to question even the calibre of the academic members of staff, claiming they were not aware of the implications of their actions. ‘Has UDASA reflected’, the vice-chancellor asked, ‘on what intellectuals elsewhere in the world who read the UDASA statement will conclude about the calibre and quality of intellectuals at UDSM?’ Then came the real crunch: Would any of the un-embedded intellectuals have their sons, daughters or relatives studying or living in the US or UK? Would one meet any of them standing in queue for a visa to the US or UK? Will any of them neither seek nor accept funding for research, sabbaticals, and other academic pursuits from any of the two countries? The following year, UDASA and the university administration clashed again, after the administration, on 21 April 2004, suspended all students for ‘security ’ reasons. This followed a two-day boycott of classes in protest against the Student Loans Bill, aimed at introducing the last phase of so-called cost sharing in higher education. On 20 April students had demonstrated against the bill, only to meet the wrath of the state in the form of the police and paramilitary, who broke up the demonstration using excessive force. Many students were wounded or jailed. When UDASA protested against this shabby treatment of the students, the administration questioned its legitimacy as an organisation and the manner in which it conducted itself as far as decisionmaking was concerned. The administration even challenged UDASA to conduct an opinion poll to ascertain whether its members truly agreed with the positions taken by the organisation, arguing that UDASA lacked even the basic rudiments of strategic planning. Under such circumstances, can the university still be considered a site of knowledge? Is it possible to undertake basic research in a situation where 34 Academic Freedom and the Social Responsibilites of Academics in Tanzania donors and international financial institutions (IFIs) dominate in every sphere of society and academia? What all the above demonstrates is the fact that there is...